eBird Checklist Challenge Update #1 and No Snowy ......Yet!

Here's the thing, people who really know us would tell you that when we decide to try a new hobby we kinda go all in. I like to call it expediting the learning curve but in any case we seem to accomplish a lot in a very short period of time and as we're getting older time is a commodity that we don't want to waste. Besides, we have a lot of fun just going all in.

Case in point, the first week of our 2019 eBird Checklist-a-day Challenge / Personal Streak Challenge had some interesting results and obstacles that needed solutions. Robyn and I bird together most of the time but the past week I have been challenged a bit to get birding in when going to work while it's dark and coming home as it's getting dark. Fortunately I work close to the Victoria International Airport which has a number of eBird hotspots nearby and this has allowed me to grab my lunch, drive 8 or 9 minutes to a hotspot, wolf down my lunch while scanning the area for 10 minutes and then heading back to work all within my 30 minute lunch break. Having done this the past three days I had a little laugh to myself heading back to work thinking "is this what it would be like doing a Big Year from sunrise to sunset for 365 days"?? Robyn is very fortunate to work from home so she can easily do a yard count or take a walk around our patch that is just beyond the backyard fence.

2019 eBird Stats (January 1 -7)

Mark - 58 species, 1 lifer, 24 checklists, 7 day streak
Robyn - 55 species, 1 lifer, 21 checklists, 7 day streak

What does this mean? In less than one week we have identified over 1/4 of our "First 200 Big Year" total but we know that it's not going to be that easy the rest of the way. Now the fun begins!!

Living in Victoria, BC we have the luxury of being one of the very few cities in Canada that doesn't get snow regularly like the rest of the country and this also applies to Snowy Owl sightings. The last rare sighting was in 2016, that is until January 1st of this year when a Snowy Owl was seen at the Victoria International Airport no less than 200 feet from where I work but I wasn't working that day!! Now that would have made a great eBird checklist lifer addition!

Courtesy of Colin Franks Photography

However, I have a sneaking suspicion that the Snowy Owl might still be around as I got a 4-5 second glimpse of a whitish-grey raptor-like bird flying low to the ground about 400 feet away a couple of days ago while driving to a hotspot on my lunch break. Could it have been the rare Snowy Owl? Maybe, maybe not but guess what we'll be doing this weekend ;-)